Here is the daytime view at my new park. Yes, I need to wash my windows. The roads were sandy yesterday! 🙂

Walking down Zero Avenue, I was treated to this sight:

Spelling Fail

*ggl*

Then this little guy stopped his wanderings long enough to pose for a couple of shots!

Notice the water of salty persuasion in the background… 🙂

Getting closer to the water:

Zero Avenue ends at Peace Arch Park, a sort of no man’s land that straddles the 49th parallel, existing between the American and Canadian customs. I don’t know if Americans can do this, but I was able to take a stroll down Zero Avenue in Surrey right into the park without requiring any sort of identification. I was told I could walk to White Rock through the park, but I couldn’t find a legitimate way to get out of there other than the way I came in or actually going through Canadian customs, so I didn’t pursue the issue and will ask for further clarification.

A not-so-excellent adventure on a US military base in California taught me to be very careful about taking pictures anywhere near US government installations (no, I did NOT try to take pictures of a military base!), so I was very cautious about taking out the camera at the park. I did sneak a couple of pics:

I'm in the United States!

Other side of the monument... and I'm in Canada!

More ocean, a lineup to get into the US, and a glimpse of Peace Arch Park

The Peach Arch

Coming home, I passed a couple out for a stroll:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard out enjoying the weather

When I checked the forecast last night, they were calling for rain today and the rest of the week, but it’s been sunny so far. What a reprieve!

It feels like years have passed since my last post. That’s how it feels, sometimes, when the internet is down a for a few days!

I learned at 8 o’clock Sunday morning that my duties at the resort ended at 11PM Friday night. At least, I was eventually informed of this…. My last ‘discussion’ with management really got my butt in gear in terms of departure preparations. I’m not hanging out here a day longer than I need to. I’m waiting for a clearing in the weather (or, at least, ‘less worse’ weather) and confirmation from the park I’m going to that it will be okay to pull in on December 31st or January 1st. What irritates me the most is how hard I worked at a job for which I will not be getting a reference. I so badly needed this reference in order to update my resumé in the areas of hospitality and bookkeeping. But if one place was willing to hire me based on outdated qualifications, surely there will be another.

The park I’m going to sounds like paradise. The difference in cost between parks located near Vancouver isn’t very much, so I picked one with an indoor pool, hot tub, and sauna! I will be walking distance to the United States and about forty minutes from downtown Vancouver. Fewer than 400km separate me from this park, but the terrain between here and there is mountainous. Poor weather here could mean very bad weather on the road; I am expecting the drive to take a full day and my backup plan is to break up the trip with an overnight stay at the Walmart in Chilliwack.

Miranda is just about ready to go. I would have liked to pull out at first light tomorrow, but we had tons of snow again today so I must go back up on the roof and clear some of it off, plus I’m pretty sure that my sewer hose is frozen solid (author pauses for a moment to laugh at the absurdity of her life). So, tomorrow will be a ‘apply heaters to all external fixtures that need to be removed and packed away’ kind of day.

There was a thaw on Sunday that allowed me to begin assessing the damages. My air conditioner cover cracked from the weight of the snow, but the fault line is on the side, not on top, so I do not think this is something I should worry about. A hose melted in the basement compartment I was heating, but I’m not sure what melted it, or even what the purpose of the hose was; I need to do some research on that. Within Miranda, there is evidence of water damage, but it is too early to tell yet if the damage is from condensation or infiltration. I hope it is the former! Only a test drive will tell if she is mechanically sound. After recharging the engine battery, I was able to start and run the engine without any effort, so I think Miranda is as ready to leave as I am. I have faith in her. “She’s tore up plenty, but she’ll fly true.” Another quote from the movie that gave Miranda her name. 🙂

I am melancholy. I remember how enthusiastic and naïve I was when I arrived in Oliver in October. I feel so much older now, worn out and wrung out. The past eleven weeks have sometimes felt like eleven years and there is not much of them I will wish to remember when I look back on my first year on the road. But I do not regret this time, or, more truthfully, I am happier to have been malcontent here than I was back in my old life.

Because the winter thus far has been exactly like I planned, my spring will not be. Unless something extraordinary happens, I will be in British Columbia until May. I have but one goal when I get to Surrey, one that makes me laugh: stability. I need to find work and rebuild my coffers and keep one thought in mind: summer will bring me to the Yukon.

Even though the past weeks have not been good, they do not diminish the quality of a life that allows me to leave when I have had my fill, a life that makes it easy to find fresh beginnings when endings taste like ash.

It was a brutal minus seventeen this morning when I went out at 6:30, but the temperature has been steadily rising (minus eleven at time of writing). Tomorrow, we are still being promised minus three (which we reached yesterday!) and then Sunday onwards it looks like we’re pushing up above zero. Yaaaaaay!

The forecast for January 2nd is a little worrisome (looks like it could end up being freezing rain), but I’ll be monitoring things closely and taking off as soon as I feel I can safely travel. I’ve slowly begun to make preparations for departure and I plan to spend January 1st readying Miranda’s exterior. Hopefully, my black tank will have time to thaw out in the next week! I hope to have a sufficient number of days of above freezing weather to determine if any major damage was done to my holding tanks and also to clear off the melting snow and ice to prevent water infiltration.

My next stop is officially Surrey and while I have pretty much made my decision as to what rv park I am going to next, I will withhold details about that at this time. 🙂

Rae Crothers

Full-Time RVer and Blogger

Rae Crothers has been a full-time RVer since September 2008. In this time she has established herself as an authority on full-time RVing in Canada as evidenced through her blog, ebooks, and an RV lifestyle seminar. Rae has also been featured in numerous media outlets.

RVing is just part of Rae's story. She is also a French/English translator and transcriptionist.

Rae considers 'home' to be wherever her motorhome is parked. You can find her on the web at uskeba.ca.